Proving Ground
by Capt. Cow
Summary: WIP. "Spider, you idiot, you didn't have to prove yourself to me." The crew deal with a mission gone wrong. S/B, M/K
1. Awakening

**Proving Ground**

**Summary: **"Spider, you idiot, you didn't have to prove yourself to me." The crew deal with a mission gone wrong.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Sea Patrol then they would act a little bit smarter (ie. Monday's ep, why did no one think to check if the guy they showed around their entire ship was a baddy??)

**Authors Note: **This is set in season 3 (no specific date or anything, but after early season 3 events) and so there are some spoilers.

* * *

The process of waking up, Bomber decided, had gotten decidedly harder since she tried it the day before. Instead of being able to spring up out of the bed, ready for another day, she was finding it hard to get the energy to even open one eye, and the thought of being able to move even her pinky finger made her want to stay asleep for at least another three days.

She groaned and fought with her eye-lids, which were being decidedly uncooperative. It felt a little bit like a really really hideous hang-over, but she could tell by the slight movement beneath her that she was still on Hammersly, so how on earth had she managed to get _that_ drunk on duty?

Her senses were coming back in spits and spurts, and increasingly she could hear people moving around her, talking in quiet whispers. This, even more so than the epic hangover that was going on, confused her. Usually when she was waking up the rest of her bunkmates were fast asleep, after all, no one else wanted to be up at the crack of dawn to help her make breakfast (not that she wouldn't have appreciated the help).

She groaned again, slightly louder this time, and succeeded in opening one eye. The other was still refusing to cooperate, but she couldn't really be bothered to think about reasons for this just yet. Apparently the slightly primal sounds she had been making had attracted some attention, because next thing she knew Swain's voice was hovering over her, and she was having a pen-light shone in one eye, (which woke up a headache she would have preferred to live without, thankyou very much).

She tried to shove him away, but her arm wouldn't work, and her attempt to bellow something rude about where he could go stick the pen-light failed, instead coming out something like "Sw'n…li'…'ve…'ss!"

Apparently, though, Swain was going mad, because her somewhat garbled insult became cause for celebration. He had patted her on the shoulder, and then she had heard him triumphantly calling down the CO to come and see for himself.

Bomber was extremely confused. They were men, yes, so this possibly explained some of the madness of wanting to observe and celebrate over the awakening of a woman who must have been _absolutely potted_ the night before, but not even their gender could completely explain the insanity that had taken over the crew. After all, Swain had always been a man, and had seemed somewhat more rational previous to this.

When she tuned back in again Swain had put the pen-light down and was now poking and prodding her, waking up previously unknown pains all over her body. A sharp ache was starting to make itself known in her wrist, her ribs well _hurt_, and the headache begun by the pen-light was expanding, encompassing not just her entire head and face, but also giving her neck a stiffness she didn't think had been there yesterday.

Swain, as he poked, seemed to be saying something, and she tried to tune in, hoping for an explanation of how this had all happened. He was using the tone that she called his "calming medic voice", which concerned her, because it meant she was either on the verge of death, or about to be hit on.

And that was when it hit her that maybe she wasn't hung over (because, generally, achy wrists and painful ribs were not a side-effect of drinking too much), but that something somewhat serious had happened. (This would also explain Swain and the CO's apparent desire to celebrate her waking up.)

She tried to sit up and ask Swain what exactly was going on, but it came out more of a little wiggle and "…'t hap'ned"

Thankfully Swain had obviously had a lot of practice at decoding the mad sounding mutterings of people waking up in Bomber's condition.

"You don't remember Bom? You were on a fishing boat, and there was an explosion. You've been unconscious for almost 12 hours."

And then it all came back, her memory surprising her with is intensity. A fishing boat that had been floating in the ocean, a team dispatched to check out what was going on, she had turned around to tell Spider off for dropping something, and then a shove, and then nothing.

She groaned, frustrated this time, how was it that she had been unconscious for 12 hours and yet there was no Spider, the clumsy oaf, sitting by her bedside ready to apologise for distracting her so she didn't see the bomb before it was too late. (She also took a moment to consider the irony of being blown up when her nickname was bomber.)

She took a moment to try and moisten her dry lips before speaking again, and this time her words almost came out the way she meant them.

"Where's Spider?"

Swain, who had the worst poker face on the ship, looked startled for a moment, and dropped into "calming medic voice".

"You've been through a lot Bom. The CO is on his way down here, but it might be easier if you try and grab some sleep and he can talk to you later."

This, a blatantly awful attempt to subtly change the subject, got her attention as quickly as if he had done an interpretive dance that something was not right.

"Swain?" This time her voice trembled slightly, concerned. Because in her memory she was beginning to hear not only the terrible concussive blast of an explosion, but a shout, just before it. Something that sounded awfully like a "Get down Bomber" was proceeding the shove she had received, and now the last thing she could remember was a warm body covering hers before the darkness arrived.

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	2. 13 Hours Earlier

**Proving Ground**

**Authors Note: **Hi, this chapter certainly took a while…so so much longer than I thought it would! But I sort of had a mental blank (stupid muse, giving me one chapter and then zotting off to do something else) and have only just now been able to sort of get it together! Thanks for all the awesome reviews, they are what made me force myself to get in gear and (eventually) finish this chapter! This story has taken a different turn from where I was planning to go with it, and so may end up being slightly longer than I had planned…but we will see how we go. Sorry not much happens in this chapter, but it was sort of setting the scene. Next chap we will hopefully find out how Spider is…or not…(laughs a little evilly…)

Oh and each of the time stamps, "13 hours earlier etc" they all relate to the first chapter, so its 13 hours earlier than chap 1, 12 hours earlier than chap 1 etc.)

**13 Hours Earlier**

Mike Flynn was feeling fairly impressed with himself all things considered. It was a gorgeous day, the sea was calm, and the sun was glinting off it in such a way as to make it seem like it was sparkling. Had there been birds nearby he assured himself that they would have been singing their hearts out. As well as the weather making him feel like all was right with the world everyone on the ship was being cooperative and helpful, Bomber hadn't tried to push anyone overboard in nearly 24 hours, RO was off duty, and therefore all his snide comments were confined to his quarters, and the Nav was smiling (something that was, not surprisingly, fairly unusual these days). He found himself looking out the front window of the ship feeling that this was about as good as it was going to get.

So it was that when the radar made the bleepy sound that informed those on the bridge there was someone nearby he knew, almost immediately, that his perfect day was about to come crashing down around his ears. With a sigh he addressed the Nav.

"What have we got Nav? Nuclear missiles en-route? A sinking oil tanker that will pollute the ocean for years to come? Terrorists with weapons trained on the ship?"

She gave him a slightly startled glance, obviously not following his train of thought from perfect day to worst-case-scenario.

"Looks like a small fishing vessel boss."

He smiled at her. Nav could always be counted on to be professional, no matter how mad her boss seemed in any particular moment. He liked that about her.

Spider, who had been nodding off at his post, had jerked to attention at the word terrorists, but slid back into his seat again as the Nav destroyed his hopes of an exciting afternoon.

Flynn raised an eyebrow in his direction, and the seaman had the sense to look abashed. After all, they weren't in the navy to seek out terrorists, regular fishing boats and their business was important as well.

Despite the lack of nuclear missiles and terrorists the CO couldn't shake the feeling that his perfect day was being interfered with big-time.

"They're a long way from home aren't they Nav? Fishing all the way out here?"

She did a quick check of their position before nodding emphatically. "Not near any land at all sir. This area is legal to fish in, but they are sitting very close to the boundaries."

Flynn nodded, taking that in. So they were legally there, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. And generally, when he couldn't shake a feeling like this, something was wrong. He just couldn't work out what.

Which annoyed him. A lot.

"Sir?" Nav broke into his train of thoughts, her eyes pinned to the radar screen in front of her. "There is something else that's strange. It's a fishing boat, I'm sure of that, but they don't appear to be doing any fishing. It looks like they dropped their nets in the water and started full speed in the opposite direction the minute we came over the horizon."

Mike's brain whooped. It loved being right.

"That seem a little fishy to anyone else?" He didn't wait for anyone to answer him (although he was a little hurt no one laughed at his hilarious pun) but instead turned to the XO and ordered a boarding party assembled. As Kate moved to descend the stairs, Buffer ambling ahead of her, Mike called out after her.

"X? Just, be careful out there will you? I've got a funny feeling about this one."

She considered him for a moment, eyes searching his face for any more explanation than what he had given her. When he offered nothing more (after all, he had no real reasons why he was feeling so jumpy) she gave a quick nod and continued down the stairs with Spider following her like an excitable lanky puppy.

The next time Flynn saw the man it was 2 hours later. He was unconscious, badly burned, and bleeding heavily.

**12.5 Hours Earlier**

Kate couldn't shake the strange look Flynn had given her as she left the bridge. She prided herself on being able to read him fairly well most of them time (after all, he was a pretty readable man generally) but today all she could tell was that something indistinct was bothering him about the mission.

That he was nervous made her nervous. And she really hated being nervous before a mission. It wasn't good form to go into a situation nervous about what the consequences could be. She was all for being prepared, but going in expecting the absolute worst dictated ones behaviour in a way that was not always for the best.

So as she headed down onto the rib with the rest of her team she tried to shake the feeling of foreboding that was blanketing her. Buffer quirked an eyebrow at her as she sat down, obviously noticing that she hadn't shaken off Mike's warning. It wasn't like Mike didn't usually warn them to be careful, he was always saying how much he hated being on the ship when his team were entering potentially dangerous situations, but this had seemed different, Flynn had seemed genuinely jumpy, and Kate wasn't exactly sure how to take it.

"Ok there X?" Buffer had moved from eyebrow quirking to direct questioning, and Kate resisted the urge to sigh. Sometimes the man had about as much subtlety as a steam train. Couldn't he tell she was trying to hide her concern over the mission? Now she had Spider and Bomber looking at her curiously, and distracted junior sailors was the last thing that they needed.

"I'm fine Buff."

He looked at her a moment longer, a questioning expression on his face, still unsure of what exactly she was trying to tell him. "Yes ma'am."

The fishing boat appeared to be deserted as they approached it, and that gave Kate the creeps just as much as Mike's warning had. Usually when they approached a boat in the water they were able to see at least one person, but this time it was eerily empty. Buffer was apparently not bothered by this, taking the first opportunity to leap off the rib and up onto the other vessel. Spider followed in a slightly less graceful way, but there wasn't much time to notice his stumble as he cleared the railing because Buffer was already moving, bellowing that they were the Australian navy.

Kate, feeling that the situation was moving a bit faster than she had really anticipated landed on the deck to find Buffer disappearing around the front of the boat, still shouting. She waved 2-Dads after him, making a mental note to talk to Buffer about moving more slowly into situations that had the potential for danger. (After this she made a second mental note to not take out on Buffer her over-hyped nerves about this mission. He was, after all, just doing what he would usually be doing on a boarding.)

By this point Bomber had arrived on deck, and she and Spider were waiting, guns at the ready, for instruction. Kate began to move down the steps into the underneath of the boat, signalling for them to follow her.

It was very dark as they moved down the steps, and though she was straining, she couldn't hear anything that sounded like a number of fisherman moving about. There were a number of small rooms along the corridor that the stairs led into. It was moments like these that X wished that boat builders favoured more open design plans, preferably with lots of glass and wide spaces. She hated walking into the bottom of a ship in an unknown situation and feeling like people (probably with enormously powerful and deadly weapons) were hiding all around her.

They had cleared the first room when her radio clicked.

"X" Buffer's gruff voice came through loud and clear, "we've got something up here that you might want to check out."

She nodded, and then realised that he couldn't see her. Grabbing her radio she let Buffer know she was on her way up and then turned to the two sailors with her.

"I want you to check the two remaining rooms and then report in. I'm heading up to see what they've found."

Kate resisted the urge to say "Be careful" because then not only would she be turning into Mike Flynn, but she would also possibly make it clear that this whole situation was making her more nervous than it should be. Instead she waited for their acceptance of her order and turned to head back up the stairs, hoping that Buffer had managed to find the entire crew doing something totally innocuous, like playing an epic game of Monopoly that so entranced them they didn't hear the incredible noise that a navy boarding party makes. She wasn't completely sure what the chances of this were, but had her fingers crossed anyway.

She had barely cleared the stairs and begun to head for the front of the boat when there was an indistinct but panicked shout, and then the entire vessel was rocked with the force of an explosion. Unable to steady herself against the unexpected movement Kate was flung forwards into a wooden pole that was holding up the roof over the on deck cabin. Her last thought, as she drifted into unwelcome unconsciousness, was to wonder how on earth Mike had known something bad was going to happen.


End file.
